This invention relates to an ampule delivery device having a vertically movable ampule collector for collecting ampules supplied from an ampule feed unit comprising a plurality of ampule feeders and delivering them into buckets so as not to break any ampules.
Ampule collecting devices used in hospitals to collect injection drug ampules prescribed for each patient are disclosed in unexamined Japanese patent publications 2-28416 and 2-28417, which are both filed by the applicant of this invention. In these devices, ampules that are different in size (extra large LL, large L, medium M, small S) and contain different kinds of injection drugs are taken out of a cassette housing for each patient, placed by sizes on a plurality of vertically arranged horizontal conveyors, transferred onto a vertical conveyor at the end of the delivery ends of the horizontal conveyors by a transfer means, and discharged by a setting means when they pass the highest point of the vertical conveyor.
The transfer means temporarily stocks ampules received from the horizontal conveyors, and pushes up the ampules one by one with a pusher onto the vertical conveyor. These ampule collecting devices can prepare ampules for a plurality of patients in a short time with high efficiency because as soon as ampules for one patient are transferred onto the vertical conveyor, i.e. well before these ampules are discharged by the setting means, ampules for the next patient are selected and put on the conveyors.
These ampule collecting devices can transfer ampules for a plurality of patients efficiently in a sufficiently short time. However, if the conveyor speed and the ampule push-up speed are increased in an attempt to further shorten the ampule preparation time, ampules may be broken by the pusher. In order to prevent breakage of ampules, the ampules have to be pushed up at a relatively slow speed.
Further, in this arrangement, in order to prevent breakage of ampules, ampules are tipped sideways one by one when transferred onto the vertical conveyor. Thus, ampules collected for each patient cannot be transferred onto the vertical conveyor at one time, so that the larger the number of ampules for one patient, the longer it takes to collect such ampules.
An ampule collecting device which is free of this problem would be one in which ampule feeders for discharging ampules one by one from ampule containers accommodating ampules in a disorderly manner are arranged cylindrically and stacked one upon another, and which further includes an ampule collecting container vertically movably provided along the ampule feeders. The ampule collecting container is moved up or down to the level of any ampule feeder to collect ampules.
With ampules placed therein, the ampule collecting container is lowered and its bottom is opened to empty ampules therein into a bucket. However, if the container is lowered until its bottom touches the bottom of a bucket, any ampules already in the bucket may be broken by the bottom of the container.
Thus, it is necessary to stop the container while its bottom is still at a level which is higher than the top edge of the bucket. If the bottom plate of the container is opened suddenly in this state, ampules tend to be broken due to the rather large difference in height between the bottom of the container and that of the bucket. To prevent breakage of ampules, the bottom plate has to be opened slowly.
While the bottom plate is being opened slowly, the ampule collecting container cannot be raised to collect ampules for the next patient. A longer time is thus needed to collect ampules for all the patients.
If another transfer means is used to open the bottom plate slowly to put ampules into the bucket without breaking ampules, it is possible to raise the ampule collecting container quickly and thus to deliver ampules into buckets with high efficiency and without the possibility of breaking ampules.
An object of this invention is to provide an ampule delivery device which can deliver ampules from an ampule collecting container to a bucket quickly without breaking ampules delivered from the container into the bucket or those already in the bucket.